Case Number 21422: Small Claims Court

Leaving Las Vegas (Blu-ray)

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All Rise...

Judge Gordon Sullivan learned the hard way that what happens in Vegas only stays if you do.

The Charge

"I don't know if my wife left me because of my drinking or I started
drinking 'cause my wife left me."—Ben Sanderson (Nicholas Cage)

The Case

Nicholas Cage seems to have two speeds as an actor: slow and intense, or
totally insane. Sadly, totally-insane Nicholas Cage seems to gross more than
slow-intense Nicholas Cage, so most of his films involve a little too much of
the Nicholas Cage freak out for my taste. Luckily, every time I'm disgusted by
his performance in the likes of The Sorcerer's Apprentice or
mildly disappointed in something like his turn in Bad Lieutenant, I can turn to
Leaving Las Vegas, one of the handful of films that establish Nicholas
Cage as a truly great actor. Although not the most sparkling hi-def upgrade
ever, this disc is a decent way to have Leaving Las Vegas in your
collection.

In Leaving Las Vegas, pathetic alcoholic Ben Sanderson (Nicholas
Cage) decides to salvage what little dignity he has left by burning all his
bridges and going out for one last bender in the city of sin. With his
figurative and literal chips cashed in, Ben secures a motel room in which to
drink himself to death. Before he can do that, he meets a prostitute, Sera
(Elisabeth Shue, The Karate Kid). Looking
for companionship, Ben offers Sera $500 dollars for an hour of her time, but
instead of sex he just wants to talk. The pair strikes a deal: if Sera won't try
to stop Ben's drinking, he won't say anything about her prostitution. Although
their pact seems solid, the dangers of Ben's drinking and Sera's job slowly
start to eat at their growing friendship.

Leaving Las Vegas is a dark, almost stygian film, which is what you
should expect from a relationship between a man trying to drink himself to death
and a prostitute trying to make a living. No one is surprised when it doesn't
really end well. What is surprising is how enjoyable the journey is. Director
Mike Figgis (adapting a semi-autobiographical novel by John O'Brien) wrings
every bit of tragic, human pathos he can from Ben's final days. Even though this
is a depressing, difficult film, it is also ultimately life-affirming. Not in a
cheap greeting-card sentiment way, but by reminding us that life is struggle and
beauty can be salvaged despite any difficulties. The film also shows that human
connections are the most significant.

Nicholas Cage rightfully gets a lot of credit for his portrayal of Ben in
Leaving Las Vegas. There's no doubt he earned that little golden statue
because his Ben straddles the line between sympathy and disgust. He could have
made Ben a cartoon drunk, either ugly and violent or goofy and carefree.
Instead, he does the much more difficult job of making Ben both. He's obviously
not always a nice guy (as his pushing away of everyone close to him shows) but
he can be charming (as his relationship with Sera shows). Even if no one is
going to argue with Cage's Oscar, Elisabeth Shue earned her nomination as well.
If it hadn't been an almost-literal Madonna versus whore battle between Shue and
Susan Sarandon for Dead Man
Walking, Shue would have almost certainly gone home with a statue of her
own. As it is, her performance has aged well, and her Sera also straddles some
of the same lines as Ben. She's not quite the bitter, cynical streetwalker, nor
is she a wide-eyed innocent. The pair together make for an interesting
drama.

Mike Figgis was nominated for his own Academy Award, and he directs
Leaving Las Vegas in an intentionally gritty style. The film was shot on
16mm, on the cheap, so the transfer was never going to look stunning on Blu-ray.
However, this AVC encoded transfer does as well as we could expect with the
material. Everything is a bit dark, colors a bit drab (except for some shots of
neon), and there is a bit of print damage. Detail isn't as strong as I'd like,
but there aren't any compression artifacts to speak of. The 5.1 DTS-HD track is
total overkill for this dialogue-driven film, but everything is clear and
balanced well.

This is a budget release, so the only extra is the film's trailer.

Leaving Las Vegas is unapologetically a film about a guy drinking
himself to death with a prostitute. Obviously that's not going to be everyone's
cup of tea, especially since the film rarely takes a moment to release some of
its tension. As befits a melodramatic subject (I mean how many people really set
out to drink themselves to death like this?), Leaving Las Vegas can be a
bit over the top.

Leaving Las Vegas is an interesting entry in Mike Figgis filmography,
and showed that both Elisabeth Shue and Nicholas Cage were ready for prime time.
It's not a happy film, but it can be a rewarding one. This Blu-ray release is
aimed at the budget crowd and provides a decent audiovisual presentation with
only a trailer for extras. It's certainly worth a rental for fans of those
involved.